Xijiu Ge and Li Hanguang sat beneath the moon and said nothing. The person at the center of her troubled thoughts was right beside her. She did not want to keep turning it over.
She looked at the Suiyue Tan blooms ahead. Frost had already turned the petals deep blue.
"What happened?" she asked.
Li Hanguang answered plainly. "We fell into Zhuiyue's trap. The phantom demon was its construction. It kept us complacent, then pulled us under at the last moment. When I woke and found everyone else still unconscious, I suspected the flower fragrance was the anchor of the illusion. I moved to destroy the nearest Suiyue Tan. Fortunately, you woke."
Xijiu Ge scanned the clearing. Ji Shaoyu, Ji Gaoxin, Ji Ningsi, and the others all lay motionless. These were people of rank. If anything went wrong, no one would be able to explain it. She got to her feet.
"The Suiyue Tan is near withering. We have to burn the flowers before that happens. If we don't, their spirits may be locked in the illusion permanently. Everything else can wait. Save them first."
Li Hanguang rose beside her. He watched her stand, then paused. "Goddess, are you all right? If you need to rest, I can handle the Suiyue Tan alone."
"I'm fine. There's no time."
He did not argue. The two of them moved into the flower field together. The night breeze was soft, the moon wide and bright. They set about destroying beauty with steady hands.
Li Hanguang's power ran cold. When he swept his sleeve, a deep chill traced through the petals and down into the roots, killing each plant in a breath. The Suiyue Tan hardened on the branch. Frost beat the leaves and stems to deep blue. The flowers were locked at their most perfect moment, sacred and still and faintly pitiful.
Even dying, they died beautifully.
Li Hanguang withdrew his hand. Then firelight erupted behind him and turned half the sky orange.
He looked back. The hillside was a sea of flame.
The moon-sweeping blossoms grew thick, and fire moved through them like a single living thing, one flower carrying the next. In moments the entire white field was consumed. Li Hanguang had thought his own method ruthless enough. He was wrong.
"Goddess," he said, with something close to patience, "there may still be people lying in the grass. Restrain yourself slightly."
Xijiu Ge gave him a perfunctory nod and kept burning.
The moon hung high. Two figures moved through the flower sea, and on either side of their path the world was split between ice and fire, the colors pressing outward like dye soaking through silk. Xijiu Ge set another blaze and asked, without looking back, "What did you see in the illusion?"
Li Hanguang breathed cold air into his palm, then drew his fingers back and slowly worked his knuckles. "What did the goddess see?"
There was no version of that dream she would ever say aloud. She kept her expression still. "I dreamed my mother was alive. That I grew up beside her."
She had seen Xihe. No wonder the illusion had held her so long. Li Hanguang let out a quiet breath. Before losing consciousness, he had caught Xijiu Ge as they fell together. He had worried since then that they had been pulled into the same illusion. He was relieved to know they were not.
"I dreamed of my parents at peace," he said evenly. "My childhood at their knees."
Since waking, Xijiu Ge had kept a fist around something tight in her chest. Li Hanguang's words loosened it. Good. She was the only one who had seen those things.
The first half of her illusion had mirrored what truly happened after she woke from Yaochi. What differed was this: in the real world, the voice had not been there to deceive her, and she had never gone to the demon world. She had never seen the underground battlefield. Never seen the scorched hill.
Perhaps Suiyue Tan had fabricated those scenes to break her composure. But one thing Xijiu Ge could not reason through, no matter how she turned it: even if the flower demon wanted to unsettle her, why had it put Li Hanguang in her illusion? Ji Shaoyu would have served the purpose. Bai Di would have served it better.
She appeared to focus on the fire. Her mind was elsewhere entirely.
Silence stretched between them. Li Hanguang, walking among the frozen stems on the other side, held his own quiet.
Then, softly: "Goddess, would you have regrets?"
"About what?"
"If a wish could truly be granted." He paused. "If you could ask for anything at all, wouldn't you want to know who your parents are? Why they left you alone in this world?"
Xijiu Ge rarely hesitated before speaking. This time she walked several steps before answering. "Nothing to regret. I have a brother now, a teacher, a fiancé. I have enough that I can rely on myself for what I want. What I cannot reach on my own is fate. There is no use forcing it."
Li Hanguang raised an eyebrow. "Fate?"
"Yes." She looked up at the moon and let her voice fall level. "Go with the current. Be at peace with heaven's will. Force nothing."
Li Hanguang breathed out a burst of cold air. A wide stretch of Suiyue Tan shattered into frost-broken stems. He was always precise in his craft, never spending one measure more than a kill required. But just now, with a single sweep of his hand, he had destroyed far more than necessary.
He steadied himself. Without pausing: "If the goddess one day lost someone important to her, would she cast a forbidden spell to save him, or would she accept heaven's will and let go?"
Xijiu Ge found the question simple. "If I can save him, then saving him is within my reach. That means it is heaven's will."
Li Hanguang stopped. "Even through a forbidden spell?"
"That is only a method."
He was quiet for a moment. Then he gave up pressing her.
Her way of thinking was unlike anyone else's. She pulled you into her logic and defeated you on its own terms. She had everything, so she had nothing to fight for. Even if she burned through a time-space forbidden technique, it would cost her nothing but materials.
Li Hanguang did not believe in heaven or fate or ordained endings. He would not concede what he had not personally accepted, no matter who stood against him.
Xijiu Ge glanced at him. His thoughts carried a distinctly demonic current. Before tonight, she would not have given it a second consideration. He was an evil demon who defied the natural order. The answer was simple.
But tonight he had saved her twice. Once he had taken the corrosive liquid for her. Once he had pulled her out of the illusion. She understood clearly that if he had not destroyed the Suiyue Tan in time, she might not have been able to hold against the voice.
The teachings were plain: exorcise demons, defend the way. But they were equally plain about something else: repay kindness with kindness, and hatred with hatred. He had saved her. If she killed him after that, she would be repaying a debt with a blade.
She turned it over from every angle. If she wanted to honor both principles at once, there was only one path remaining.
The answer came clean and sudden. Kunlun took the world as its burden. If she could draw a demon onto the right road, was that not greater merit than killing him?
She was satisfied with this reasoning. She revised her plan. Execution could wait. Reform came first.
"When leaves fall they return to their roots. Water always seeks the lower ground." Her voice was measured, unhurried. "Following heaven's will is the right path. Those who fight it only harm themselves and others in the end."
Li Hanguang inclined his head. "The goddess speaks wisely. I will take her words to heart."
He said it with perfect humility. He felt nothing of the kind. If he had ever obeyed fate, he would have died the day he was born. He knew exactly what he wanted. He was not letting go.
Xijiu Ge watched him sidelong, uncertain whether any of it landed. Influencing a demon was not a night's work. She would take her time.
The two of them moved through the field together, one laying ice, one fire, neither in each other's way. Working in silence, they swept ahead of the withering line and finished every last Suiyue Tan before it could die on its own.
Without the fragrance, those lying on the ground began to stir. Li Hanguang cleared the ruined flowers from the path and said, "Right now only the two of us have enough strength to protect ourselves. If we stay outside much longer, something else may happen. We should bring the woken ones back to the ship."
Xijiu Ge agreed. She counted the conscious and said, "Jiang Yuwang's health was already poor. Send him first."
She said it entirely from reason, nothing more. Li Hanguang glanced briefly at Ji Ningsi across the clearing. "Princess Shangjin has also woken. If we attend to someone else before her, she and Prince Jintian will take offense. You and the Princess are both women. Go and settle her. I will take Prince Jiang."
The logic held. Ji Ningsi's cultivation was weak, and Xijiu Ge was more than enough to manage her. She nodded and walked over.
Li Hanguang watched her go, then turned toward Jiang Yuwang.
Jiang Yuwang had surfaced from the illusion weaker than before. When he opened his eyes and found Li Hanguang standing over him, something complicated moved through his expression. He was clan to Ji Gaoxin and the others, yet after the collapse, the first face he saw was a demon's.
Li Hanguang said nothing about that. He checked Jiang Yuwang's pulse and straightened. "Prince Jiang, the illusion took a toll on your mind. You need rest. Bear with me a moment. I will bring you to the ship."
He helped him up. Jiang Yuwang turned to look back across the field. "Where is Zhu Ying..."
"Do not worry. Rest first. I will come back for General Zhu Ying."
He settled Jiang Yuwang onboard, brought him tea, and waited until he had taken his medicine before going back out. He found Zhu Ying shortly after and brought her in as well.
She exhaled when she saw Jiang Yuwang was rested and calm. Li Hanguang showed them to a private room and said quietly, "No one will disturb you here. Rest. I will see to the others."
Then he left without another word.
Zhu Ying watched him go. Beside her, Jiang Yuwang let out a slow breath. "He was careful and gentle. More courteous than many gods I know. He doesn't look like a demon at all."
Zhu Ying said nothing. For the first time, she kept her doubts about Li Hanguang to herself.
She had watched him closely, had been certain his private conversations with Jiang Yuwang were something to distrust. Now she wasn't so certain. Perhaps her assumptions had led her wrong.
There were corrupt gods. Perhaps there were also righteous demons.
Meanwhile, Ji Ningsi had tested every last scrap of Xijiu Ge's patience. After what felt like an eternity, she finally got her back to the cabin. Then she retrieved Xiling Sang from the shore. Xiling Qiao and Ji Gaoxin could find their own way back; she had done enough.
She was moving across the deck when it struck her. Ji Shaoyu and Chang Ju were not here.
Her chest tightened. She turned and ran back to shore.
Li Hanguang noticed her moving fast and fell into step behind her. "Goddess. What's wrong?"
"Ji Shaoyu hasn't boarded."
He followed without a word. She turned and looked at him sharply. "What do you want?"
"I came to find Chang Ju," he said.
That was reasonable. She didn't question it. "I saw him earlier, but..."
The ground she had burned was unrecognizable now. She couldn't read the terrain anymore. Li Hanguang studied the landscape for a moment. "That direction."
What the difference came down to was this: Xijiu Ge had learned to read terrain through experience. Li Hanguang had learned to read it to survive. A man who could not identify his direction instantly had generally not lived to worry about it.
She followed his lead, half-doubtful, and found Ji Shaoyu exactly where he said.
He was still unconscious. Something cold moved through her. She didn't stop to ask how Li Hanguang knew. She crossed to Ji Shaoyu quickly and knelt.
Li Hanguang watched her run toward another man without hesitation. He turned and went to look for Chang Ju.
Ji Shaoyu was trapped deep in the illusion. In his dream he had walked beside Xijiu Ge for two thousand years. He had believed, if he was only careful enough, that she would eventually feel something for him. Two thousand years passed. She remained the same. She was alone and unchanged.
She had never loved him.
A voice moved close to his ear. "It's useless. She doesn't love you. No matter what you give, she will never answer. A lifetime is still so long. Are you willing to go on like this?"
He wanted to say yes. He wanted to say he would give without asking anything back, that he needed nothing from her. But he could not lie to himself.
If it was a political arrangement, a marriage of mutual respect between strangers, he could carry that. But when a person truly loves, who can honestly ask for nothing in return?
The voice pressed closer. "She doesn't love you, and one day she will love someone else. What will you be when that day comes? Agree to one condition, and I can make her love you."
Ji Shaoyu's consciousness began to fracture. A vision formed, soft and complete. Her parents were harmonious. His wife was devoted. She loved him the way an ordinary wife loved her husband.
Dark energy was threading through his mind when a hot, forceful light broke through it and cut it apart.
"Ji Shaoyu. Wake up."
The illusion collapsed. He surfaced, blinking. "Nine Songs?"
Xijiu Ge had watched him fail to wake and felt the urgency take over. She used the Heart-Clearing Mantra to pull him out by force. Immortals guarded hardest against the demons of the inner world, and Kunlun's most powerful technique was built for exactly this. Xijiu Ge was fire-attributed. Sunlight was born to suppress dark energy. She reached in and pulled him free.
When he opened his eyes, she exhaled. "You're finally awake."
Ji Shaoyu looked at her, still not certain which world he was in. From behind the tall grass came a voice: "Goddess, is the Crown Prince recovered?"
Not far off, Chang Ju was already awake. She sat in the grass with her knees folded, steadying herself. Li Hanguang stood nearby with a clear view of the scene. Xijiu Ge called back, "He's all right. We can return to the ship."
"Good." Li Hanguang's tone was easy. "Chang Ju is also awake. Goddess, would you assist Chang Ju? I'll escort the Crown Prince."
Xijiu Ge agreed without thinking much of it. Even in urgent situations, men and women were kept to proper arrangements. She and Chang Ju, Li Hanguang and Ji Shaoyu. It made sense.
She rose and walked toward Li Hanguang to hand off the instructions. Ji Shaoyu was not fully awake yet. He watched her leave him without hesitation and cross to Li Hanguang. They spoke quietly together.
Ji Shaoyu lay sprawled on the ground, unable to move his own limbs, and looked up at them from below. Both dressed in white. Standing under the moon, sleeves drifting in the light wind. Li Hanguang leaned slightly toward Xijiu Ge as she spoke. She did not step back. They stood naturally close, without awareness, as if the distance between them had long since stopped being something either of them measured.
Something in Ji Shaoyu's mind, already strained past its limit, came apart.
Xijiu Ge was explaining how Li Hanguang should handle Ji Shaoyu's condition. She kept her voice low to spare Ji Shaoyu any embarrassment. Li Hanguang leaned in slightly to catch her words, met her eyes at intervals, and nodded as she spoke.
Xijiu Ge assumed he could not hear well and thought nothing of the closeness. She was focused on Ji Shaoyu. Li Hanguang was focused on her. Neither of them noticed what was pressed beneath Ji Shaoyu's sleeve.
A single Suiyue Tan branch. Overlooked and unburned.
A thread of black air slipped from the stamens and wound silently into Ji Shaoyu's brow, leaving nothing behind. As it disappeared, one hour remained before the Suiyue Tan's final opening. Then the flower opened fully and withered. The white petals shed one by one, falling clean and fast, until nothing was left but a dry branch.
Xijiu Ge and Li Hanguang divided the remaining work, each helping Chang Ju and Ji Shaoyu back to the ship. The cabin was full but silent. Nobody spoke. Once everyone was gathered, Ji Ningsi gave the order to return, the words clipped short by exhaustion and lingering anger.
The pleasure boat had left shore filled with laughter. It came back in silence. No one wanted the banquet anymore. After docking, the guests dispersed quickly, cloud carriages lifting from the ground and carrying them back to their separate lives.
Jiang Yuwang, Ji Ningsi, and the others returned home. Xijiu Ge went back to Yongtian Palace. She would not skip tomorrow's lesson.
She returned to Chonghua Hall, changed her clothes, and bathed. When it was done, she dismissed the palace maids and sat alone in the sleeping hall.
So much had happened. She had been tired for hours. But she lay in bed and could not sleep.
She turned it all over for the middle of the night, then gave up and got out of bed. She did not wake any of the maids. She pushed open the door of Chonghua Palace quietly and followed the corridor along the mountain's edge.
Yongtian Palace pressed close to the mountain and the sea. The winding corridor ran along the cliff's edge, above the inland sea. Waves struck the rocks below, and where the moonlight caught the spray, it broke into a thousand piles of white.
Xijiu Ge stood at the railing, hands loose over the carved stone, and looked up at the moon.
She was out of the illusion. The memories of it remained. The Yaochi part was real. It had always been real. But what of the rest? Her consciousness wandering into the demon world. The wildfire she had set. Li Hanguang, burning in it.
Was that true, or was it something the flower had made?
She had no answer. The waves broke below her, white and cold and continuous, and she stood above them in the dark and kept asking.